Cleverness is quickness of mind and skill at working things out. Sheer cleverness, admire the cleverness, too much cleverness.
It is praise with a shadow on it, since cleverness suggests ingenuity rather than wisdom and can be said of a solution that was too pleased with itself. In British use, cleverness that shows is not a compliment.
1nounclevernessQuickness of mind and skill at working things out.
“The cleverness of the plan was that nobody noticed the money was missing.”
cleverness is a quality.
Middle English
cliver — tenacious
English
clever
English, today
cleverness
Built from
From clever + -ness. clever comes from East Anglian dialectal English cliver (“expert at seizing”), from Middle English cliver (“tenacious”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA